House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio calls on a reporter during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Republican House Speaker John Boehner reiterated his openness to new limits on tax breaks as part of a broad budget deal, but challenged Democrats – including President Barack Obama – to take the next steps and lay out a specific package of proposals to avoid automatic end-of-year tax increases and spending cuts.

Mr. Boehner’s comments came just a couple of hours before Mr. Obama was expected to make comments on the fiscal cliff.

“This is an opportunity for the president to lead,” the Ohio Republican said at a brief news conference. “This is his moment to engage the Congress and work towards a solution that can pass both chambers.”

Mr. Boehner’s comments again underscored the potential importance of limits on tax breaks as an area where the two sides might agree. The speaker reiterated the GOP’s opposition to letting tax rates go up on the wealthy, as Mr. Obama has proposed. Instead, Mr. Boehner suggested that limiting tax breaks while also lowering rates is the key to a deal.

“It’s clear that there are a lot of special- interest loopholes in the tax code, both corporate and personal,” Mr. Boehner said in response to a question. “It’s also clear that there are all kinds of deductions, some of which make sense; others don’t. And by lowering rates and cleaning up the tax code, we know that we’re going to get more economic growth. It’ll bring jobs back to America. It’ll bring more revenue. We also know that if we clean up the code and make it simpler, the tax code will be more efficient. The current code only collects about 85 percent of what’s due the government. And it’s clear that if you have a simpler, cleaner, fairer tax code, that efficiency — the effectiveness and efficiency of the tax code increases exponentially.”

Mr. Obama has several proposals in his 2013 budget that could become elements of a deal. He proposed a broad limit on the value of tax deductions and other tax breaks for the well-to-do. He also proposed to lift tax rates on investment income on incomes over $250,000 for couples, $200,000 for singles. He would reinstate old limits on some tax breaks for the well-to-do that were suspended by the Bush-era tax cuts. And he wants to impose a special minimum tax on the very high-income – those making more than $1 million a year.

But Mr. Obama might choose to design new limits as well.

A bipartisan group of senators also has been working on a package of changes that could serve as an immediate down payment on reducing the nation’s deficits, and become the linchpin of an end-of-year deal.

Mr. Boehner’s comments also suggest that GOP strategists suspect that Democrats are not yet united when it comes to addressing the nation’s fiscal challenges. Republicans might want to wait and see what Democrats can actually pass through the Senate before they start negotiating in earnest.

Liberals are nervous about changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare that Republicans want as part of a deal. Some Democrats in the Senate also are uncomfortable with the basic tax rate increases that Mr. Obama wants on the wealthy, and might try to tweak them in various ways.

Mr. Boehner declined to specify which elements he might want in the “down payment” he says he is willing to make by year-end.

“I don’t want to limit the options that would be available to me or limit the options that might be available to the White House,” he said. “There are a lot of ways to get there, and I don’t really want to preclude anyone who might have a good idea about how we move forward. But it’s clear — it’s clear that we’ve got to fix our broken tax system, and we’ve got to deal with our spending problem.”

UPDATE: Mr. Obama’s remarks around 1 p.m. likely cheered Republicans. Not once in his remarks did the president mention tax “rates” or the need to raise them. He did encourage the House to pass a Senate bill from last summer that would extend current tax rates for the middle class – a move that would deprive Republicans of leverage, and make scheduled rate increases on upper-income households much more likely to happen. The House already has rejected that measure. Otherwise, Mr. Obama said only that the “wealthiest Americans [should] pay a little more in taxes” as part of a bipartisan budget deal.

Mr. Boehner accepted the president’s invitation to meet next week, and said in a statement that the Senate-passed bill won’t solve the problem:

“The increased tax rates that would be allowed under the Senate-passed bill are part of the fiscal cliff that economists are warning us to avoid,” he said. “Those increased tax rates will destroy jobs in America by hurting small businesses across the country.”

He added that Republicans are “eager to get to work on an agreement that averts the entire fiscal cliff,” and noted that the House has passed legislation extending all the current tax rates and setting up a procedure for budget overhauls next year.

“We look forward to joining the president next week and working to forge an agreement that will do the same,” he said.

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